Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

score was made on three wickets. It was the same pitch of course but it varied between reasonably hard, soft and sticky. No one else on our side reached fifty and when I got to three figures the public were very pleased and the locomotives on the adjoining railway whistled cock-a-doodle-do at least as well as the drivers could make them.’ 79 For his benefit match Sugg chose the visit of Kent to Old Trafford, commencing on 7 June. Hornby, now 50 years old and finally coming to the end of his distinguished career, had promised that he would captain Lancashire and Lord Harris agreed to play for Kent, his first match at Old Trafford for ten years and evidence of the good relationship that Frank Sugg had with the ‘high and mighty’ of the game. He could look forward to a successful benefit. His big hitting and fast scoring made him a very popular cricketer, and his prowess at other sports added to his appeal. The brothers’ flourishing Sugg sports business made Frank’s name a familiar one to a wider Lancashire public than those who attended cricket matches. Frank’s expectations for his benefit were borne out on the opening day of the match, Whit Monday, when in fine weather a crowd of 21,916 paying spectators plus at least 1,800 members packed into Old Trafford. Kent batted first and were all out for 192, Mold taking four wickets, one of them Lord Harris, bowled for four, and Briggs three wickets. Replying, Lancashire were 103 for four at the close with Tyldesley 49 not out. Frank Sugg had received ‘a great ovation’ on going out to bat but he scored only eight before he was bowled by Walter Wright, Kent’s left-arm fast-medium bowler. (Left-arm quick bowlers often proved Frank’s undoing.) Then the rain came and with such a vengeance that no play was possible on the remaining two days. Frank’s disappointment would have been leavened by the £830 that was raised for the beneficiary on the first day. The Lancashire committee opened the subscription lists with a donation of £50 and when they were closed the final amount raised for Frank bordered on £1,000. There is little doubt that if the match had gone its full course the sum would have been the largest of any Lancashire player’s benefit to that date. 80 The sums of £830 and 84 Lancashire Stalwart 79 Sporting Chronicle , 1 August 1916. 80 Richard Pilling’s benefit in 1889 raised £1,500. By contrast, Walter Sugg’s benefit, with a smaller county, Derbyshire in 1898, raised £340. His benefit match, against Yorkshire at Chesterfield in August, was the famous game in which J.T.Brown and John Tunnicliffe put on 554 for the visitors’ first wicket.